The Soyat NJ7150, a modernized SEAT Ibiza

This is a 2005 Nanjing NJ7150 Soyat, seen in an area of Wuxi with lots of smaller car dealers and repair shops. Interestingly this place is only a kilometer or two away from the factory where this very car was made 12 years ago! The NJ7150 was an updated version of the original NJ6400.

The NJ7150 was only made between 2004 and 2006 and is a very rare beast outside its native Wuxi, although I have seen one as far away as Taiyuan in Shanxi province. Nanjing Auto got the tooling for the Ibiza in a deal made in the late 1990’s and made cars using it beginning in 1999 with the NJ6400.

The NJ7150 was powered by a 1.5 liter 4 cylinder engine making 89hp. Of course this was one of the Porsche-designed engines that also powered the Ibiza, in China the other one was the 1.2 which did not see service in this generation of Soyat. For 2004 the 1.5 got multipoint injection. Top speed was 150km/h. It also came with ABS. Back then all car makers were very proud that their car had ABS so would almost always stick a badge or sticker on the car somewhere to make sure everyone knew! Buick always put ABS logos on their cars wheel caps in the early days.

The interior of the NJ7150 was changed from the Ibiza original that was in the NJ6400. It was ok with a few fake wood trim pieces and in this case a lighter colored dashboard. This one seemed to be in ok condition inside and it is definitely still driven, I’ve seen this car every time I’ve gone to Wuxi.

License plate rather appropriate for this shot. Tail lights suit the car well. Overall its a rather handsome beast and they did manage to make the 80’s shape look somewhat modern.

A wheel cover with the then new Soyat logo.

Here’s one I saw in 2015 just near the white one.

And the same one in 2016. It’s gone now.

And of course there was a van version but I’ll leave that for another time.

The NJ7150 eventually morphed into the final Soyat, which was called the NJ7150B and was really just the NJ7150 with a new front end. Made between late 2006 and 2008, the B is a very rare beast indeed, this white example is the only one I have ever seen!